Movie notes: A summer-blockbuster antidote

Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) and Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) become unlikely allies in a murder investigation in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” which has been held over at the Bijou.

With today’s opening of “Iron Man 2,” we’ve officially entered The Blockbuster Zone. From now until mid-August, mainstream-movie options will be monopolized by big-budget, cross-promoted, star-laden, CGI-heavy, PG-13 films that audiences are already sold on  mainly because they’re either part of a franchise or based on familiar source materials (TV shows, graphic novels, regular novels, video games, etc.)

And in terms of sheer quantity, summer is anything but boom season. How many other mainstream flicks are opening opposite “Iron Man 2” today? None. The truth is, fewer movies come out in the summer. Upcoming weekends will have more options, but not many.

This is not to denigrate “Iron Man 2.” The original was a critical and commercial success, and I’m looking forward to seeing the sequel this weekend. If that’s possible. A certain mother in my house has already made it clear she wants to see it on Mother’s Day; who knows if we’ll actually be able to get tickets?

Anyway, there are other options for folks leery of fast-food movies. In fact, one has been playing in San Antonio for weeks, and was held over again today. That would be “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” playing at the Bijou.

Based on the international best seller by the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson, “Dragon Tattoo” is everything a summer movie isn’t. The emphasis is on story and characters, not CGI-created thrills. It doesn’t treat the audience as if it has ADD  there’s not a lot of quick cutting and short scenes from our current crop of music-video directors turned feature-film directors. It takes its time building suspense and developing its characters, who look, talk and behave like real people.

If this sounds like I’m describing one of those movies only critics love, it shouldn’t. Though it clocks in at 2 hours and 32 minutes, it had me on the edge of my seat pretty much the whole time. I was hanging on every subtitle from the get-go (it’s in Swedish).

The best test of a movie based on a best-selling book is seeing it with someone who HAS read the book (I hadn’t). If this person exits the theater spitting bullets (like certain folks I know did with “Twilight” and “Eragon”), you know the filmmaker didn’t do right by the book. If, on the other hand, she only comes out nitpicking a few minor points, then the movie did the job.

The latter happened with “Dragon Tattoo.” In some ways, my “Tattoo” expert said she was a bit relieved, since some scenes involving sexual abuse/violence turned out to be not as bad as she expected. One scene in particular seemed plenty horrific to me, so I can only imagine what’s on the printed page.

The title character, a 24-year-old computer hacker named Lisbeth, is a tattooed, multipierced, skinny, black-haired, damaged soul. She’s played by Noomi Rapace, a 30-year-old Swedish actress you probably haven’t heard of, mainly because she hasn’t been in any mainstream American movies. As Roger Ebert pointed out in his review, an Americanized remake of “Dragon Tattoo” would certainly cast someone like Kristen Stewart in her role. Or maybe even Megan Fox.

Instead, Rapace’s unfamiliarity with American audiences works in her favor. It never for a moment occurred to me to think of her as an actress playing a role, like might have been the case with Stewart or some other familiar face.

The same goes for the other lead character, an investigative journalist (Michael Nyqvist) hired to work on a 40-year-old murder case in the six months before he goes to jail on a libel conviction. Nyqvist’s character is no crusading media celebrity grandstanding or skulking around in parking garages  he’s passive, quiet, observant and methodical.

I don’t want to give away anything about the story, which takes some amazing twists and turns, none of which strains credulity. It might help to know going in that the original Swedish title was “Men Who Hate Women.” I’m surprised I haven’t seen some statement from the Swedish Anti-Defamation League or some such group saying, “Most Swedish men are not like this.”

For the sake of Swedish women, I sure hope so. And I’ll leave it at that.

(A consumer note: Get to the Bijou with enough time so your food can arrive before the movie starts. Otherwise, your server might block the subtitles in the first few scenes. These contain information you absolutely need to know, especially if you haven’t read the book.)